Braden Airpark getting a facelift

Aerial photo of Braden Airpark in Forks Township, which is slated for a $500,000 facelift. (Kevin Mingora/THE MORNING CALL)

After fighting for years to keep Northampton County's only airport open, small-plane pilots will finally see the fruits of those labors as work will begin soon to rejuvenate the long-struggling Braden Airpark in Forks Township.

The Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority on Tuesday agreed to match a $250,000 county grant to embark on a $500,000 plan to add a new terminal building and begin rehabilitating the airport's crumbling concrete and macadam runway.

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It will be the first step in what is expected to be a multimillion-dollar plan to redesign and rebuild the airport to allow about half of its 72 acres to be developed for office or retail development, while improving the rest for small-plane pilots who have been using it since it opened in 1938.

That any work will begin soon is a big win for pilots, who only three years ago faced losing the airport where thousands have learned to fly.

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"We've spent a lot of time fighting to keep Braden open, so this feels good," said Clarrisa MacIntosh, treasurer of the Lehigh Valley General Aviation Association. "That airport is important to a lot of people. It's good to see the authority give it the attention it deserves."

The uncertainty over Braden rose as the authority decided in 2012 to consider selling off assets to raise money to pay off a $26 million court judgment against it for seizing a developer's land in the 1990s.

Braden was deemed expendable as the board looked to avoid the more than $200,000 annual cost of keeping it open and the $500,000 in capital improvements needed in the next few years.

The for sale sign angered small-plane pilots, who argued that Braden was not only a place where many local pilots learned to fly, but was a community asset used by single-engine pilots, experimental aircraft hobbyists and the Boy Scouts' Young Eagles program. The uncertainty caused the longtime flight school at Braden to move out, and dozens of pilots moved their planes.

But now that the court debt is paid, the authority has agreed to keep Braden open and has laid out a $2.7 million plan to rebuild it and help it attract more pilots.

Authority members took the first step in that plan Tuesday. By accepting the grant from Northampton County, the authority not only agreed to match the money, but also to perform the work this year. It will include demolishing a terminal building and two dilapidated hangars, adding a modular terminal building and erecting a fence to keep cars from straying onto the flight area.

"It's really going give the airport a nice facelift and it's all going to be done this year," said Ryan Meyer, authority director of planning and programming. "This prepares us for the next steps that can really revitalize Braden."

However, those steps remain less certain. The authority sought proposals from companies willing to find tenants to lease parts of the airfield for retail or office development. The lease proceeds would then be used to rebuild the nearly 2,000-foot-long runway, add more hangars and build a more permanent terminal building.

The problem is the authority only received one proposal from a partnership of J.G. Petrucci of Asbury, N.J., and Griffin Industrial Realty, Bloomfield, Conn.